John 20:1-18
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’'8 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
“The Unexpected Happened!”
No one expected Jesus to rise from the dead.
Pilate didn’t. The Centurion didn’t. The Pharisee’s didn’t. The disciples didn’t.
Not even Mary Magdalene expected to find an empty tomb. Then it happened and nothing has been the same since - for them or for us.
Everything we believe hinges on the resurrection. The words our Lord spoke; the sacrifice he made; the promises He gave, all rest on the resurrection. Without it they are empty.
With it they become words of life and hope, trusting that nothing now can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ!
“The Future Is Open”
When POW’s are released and go hope the future is open again.
When Jesus rose from the dead the future was opened again for him and for us.
Without a future life becomes stale, boring, routine, uneventful; it looses its sing. With a future, life becomes exciting, dynamic, moving, pulsating, alive. That’s what Easter is all about: a future which is eternal! Not even death can take our future away from us.
The future is open; we can live hopefully, joyfully - fully.
With Martin Luther, we can plant a rose bush in our garden today, even if the world should end tomorrow. For there is no end to God’s love and our eternal home!
Mark 16:1-8 (Alternate Gospel for Easter)
“Be Amazed!”
The angles advice to the women is absurd - “Do not be amazed!”
Indeed, how could they not be amazed! A resurrection had just taken place - something which had never happened before and would never happen gain - and they are to take it calmly, without amazement?
How absurd; preposterous; impossible!
Be amazed at the message of today. Don’t lose this quality as you contemplate the good news that Jesus lives. We have heard it many times; we think we know what it means; we believe it. It is still amazing! It doesn’t make sense; it is not logical or rational. It is exceptional!
Be amazed that Jesus rose; that out of death comes life; that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ! It is shockingly good news - it is love “so amazing so divine” at work in our lives and in our world.
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science (we can add religion, as Paul says.’Great indeed is the mystery of our religion’). He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein
Be amazed by Easter and the energy it releases in our lives and our world.
i.e. The 4 Chaplains on the Dorchester in WWII.
Be amazed by Easter and walk “from here to eternity” as one who lives in the hope, love, peace, joy, and life’s meaning generated by that open tomb and the words, “He is not here! He is risen! He lives! Alleluia!
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